Truffle hound : on the trail of the world's most seductive scent, with dreamers, schemers, and some extraordinary dogs

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Jacobsen, Rowan

Physical Description:

291 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 22 cm.

General Note:

Includes index.

Summary:

"The scent of one freshly unearthed white truffle in Barolo was all it took to lead Rowan Jacobsen down a rabbit hole into a world of secretive hunts, misty woods, black-market deals, obsessive chefs, quixotic scientists, muddy dogs, maddening smells, and some of the most memorable meals ever created. Truffles attract dreamers, schemers, and sensualists. People spend years training dogs to find them underground. They plant forests of oaks and wait a decade for truffles to appear. They pay $3,000 a pound to possess them. They turn into quivering puddles in their presence. Why? Truffle Hound is the fascinating account of Rowan's quest to find out, a journey that would lead him from Italy to Istria, Hungary, Spain, England, and North America. Both an entertaining odyssey and a manifesto, Truffle Hound demystifies truffles-and then remystifies them, freeing them from their gilded cage and returning them to their roots as a sacred offering from the forest. It helps people understand why they respond so strongly to that crazy smell, shows them there's more to truffles than they ever imagined, and gives them all the tools they need to take their own truffle love to the next level." --book jacket.

Contents:

Down the rabbit hole -- Black magic apple of love -- Teh Alba connection -- Remembrance of truffles past -- Hocus pocus -- Big truffle -- Tartufi Town -- Moon in crescendo -- Black autumn -- Mr. Big -- Family -- The Saint Ladislaus Order of Truffle Knights -- The inside of the inside -- El milagro -- Winter people -- Carolina gold -- The mysteries of Oregon -- New tricks.

Subject Term:

Truffles

Wild plants, Edible

Publication Info:

New York : Bloomsbury, [2021]

Subject:

Truffles

Wild plants, Edible

Black truffles, Périgord

Périgord black truffles

Périgord truffles

Tuber (Fungi)

Tuber melanosporum

Winter truffles

Edible native plants

Edible weeds

Edible wild plants

Native edible plants

Native plants, Edible

Weeds, Edible

Wild edible plants

Wild food plants

Wild plants as food

SAILS ISBN:

9781635575194

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library	635.8 JACOBSEN	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mattapoisett Free Public Library	635.8 JAC 2021	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Norfolk Public Library	635.8 JACO	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Taunton Public Library	635.8 J156T	2ND FLOOR STACKS	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wareham Free Library	635.8 JAC 2021	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

A captivating exploration into the secretive and sensuous world of truffles, the elusive food that has captured hearts, imaginations, and palates worldwide.

The scent of one freshly unearthed white truffle in Barolo was all it took to lead Rowan Jacobsen down a rabbit hole into a world of secretive hunts, misty woods, black-market deals, obsessive chefs, quixotic scientists, muddy dogs, maddening smells, and some of the most memorable meals ever created.

Truffles attract dreamers, schemers, and sensualists. People spend years training dogs to find them underground. They plant forests of oaks and wait a decade for truffles to appear. They pay $6,000 a pound to possess them. They turn into quivering puddles in their presence. Why?

Truffle Hound is the fascinating account of Rowan's quest to find out, a journey that would lead him from Italy to Istria, Hungary, Spain, England, and North America. Both an entertaining odyssey and a manifesto, Truffle Hound demystifies truffles--and then remystifies them, freeing them from their gilded cage and returning them to their roots as a sacred offering from the forest. It helps people understand why they respond so strongly to that crazy smell, shows them there's more to truffles than they ever imagined, and gives them all the tools they need to take their own truffle love to the next level. Deeply informed, unabashedly passionate, rakishly readable, Truffle Hound will spark America's next great culinary passion.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

James Beard Award--winning author Jacobsen (A Geography of Oysters) captivates with this dual narrative, both an eloquent and sensuous treatise on truffles and the enthralling story of his obsessive quest to learn everything there is to know about them. His love affair begins in the Piedmont region of Italy, at the peak of truffle season, where he smelled a white truffle for the first time. One whiff of the intoxicating aroma set him off on a passionate pursuit to learn more about the unassuming fungi: "I'd never understood the truffle thing, and now, suddenly, I had to." From a nighttime truffle hunt with a famous trifulau ("as truffle hunters are called in Piedmont") and a potentially illicit transaction in a hotel lobby to learning about the "false, misleading, and deceptive misbranding" of truffle oil in the U.S. and beyond, Jacobsen offers a thrilling dive into the secretive and lucrative world "of this subterranean wonder." The real delicacy here, though, is the arresting prose used to convey his reverence and awe: "Slice open a truffle and you'll see a beautifully marbled interior with a fine honeycomb of white veins... produce a dumbfounding cocktail of aromatic compounds.... No words can do justice to the scent of a white truffle." While that may be true, Jacobsen definitely comes close. Agent: Angela Miller, Miller Bowers Literary Management. (Oct.)

Kirkus Review

A Mark Kurlansky--esque romp through the science, history, and culture surrounding that most elusive of foodstuffs, the truffle. "White truffles," writes James Beard Award winner Jacobsen, "are the world's most expensive food." Around that rare commodity has arisen a sophisticated trade network that begins with discovering the chemically complex fungus in the depths of oak forests throughout Europe, mostly. That job was first undertaken by pigs, which "are natural and enthusiastic consumers of truffles," meaning that a truffle hunter needed to be sure that his porcine associates didn't eat up the proceeds; most modern hunters have switched over to dogs, which are less interested in the truffles. (Besides, writes Jacobsen, if a rival hunter sees you loading your car with pigs, he knows what you're up to and can follow you.) The author depicts a culture of truffle finding, trading, and eating that is as complex as the aromatic stew of ingredients that goes into one, and he commits to paper lovely images that combine both intrigue and a certain level of surrealism: "If Wes Anderson shot a John le Carré novel, he might well choose the Hotel Savona [Alba, Italy] for his set." The money behind the story is huge, and truffles are often traded as if they contained pharmaceutical-grade heroin, in back alleys and parking garages--no surprise, since they are both scarce and heavily regulated. Naturally, Jacobsen writes, factory-food types are trying to grow them in greenhouses, but the results are relatively flavorless so far, with the air of "more raw leek than golden-fried garlic." Jacobsen closes with a set of recipes, some improbable (truffletini, anyone?) and some resoundingly simple: "Many of the best ways to use truffles don't require a recipe at all. Just grate into X before serving and save a few wafers for show….Just don't truffle everything; less is more." It's an altogether delightful narrative. Fans of pungent flavors--and pungent prose--will enjoy this mouthwatering grand tour of a culinary treasure. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

In the woods of northern Italy at the base of the Alps, humans and dogs crawl among tree roots to search out the elusive king of gastronomic delights, the celebrated Alba truffle. Personally overwhelmed by the all-encompassing scent of a freshly dug truffle, Jacobsen, who explored one of the ocean's greatest bounties in The Essential Oyster (2016), determines to find the secrets behind the subterranean fungus renowned as one of the world's most expensive foods. Accompanying a truffle hunter with a pair of Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, Jacobsen digs into the soil for tasty treasure. Turning his attention to the larger world of truffle distribution and merchandising, he finds that large corporations control most of the trade, and even the most respected firms have been criminally indicted for adulterating their product with inferior, nearly tasteless Chinese truffles. But truffle aficionados are in luck: excellent specimens now come from other Italian regions, and from Eastern Europe, England, and the U.S. A worldwide catalog of truffle resources invites exploration, and some recipes give ideas for using the bounty.

Authors Note	p. xi
1 Down the Rabbit Hole	p. 1
2 Black Magic Apple of Love	p. 9
3 The Alba Connection	p. 14
4 Remembrance of Truffles Past	p. 22
5 Hocus Pocus	p. 30
6 Big Truffle	p. 41
7 Tartufi Town	p. 52
8 Moon in Crescendo	p. 60
9 Black Autumn	p. 72
10 Mr. Big	p. 96
11 Family	p. 113
12 The Saint Ladislaus Order of Truffle Knights	p. 122
13 The Inside of the Inside	p. 134
14 El Milagro	p. 153
15 Winter People	p. 170
16 Carolina Gold	p. 191
17 The Mysteries of Oregon	p. 205
18 New Tricks	p. 221
Acknowledgments	p. 233
Bonus Track: The Legend of Gustave	p. 235
Recipes	p. 243
Resources	p. 269
Index	p. 285

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Table of Contents